Education and Training as Projectised and Precarious Politics

Abstract

This article explores a new kind of political ethos in education: the alliance of projectisation and precarisation and their individual-based implementation. It is a critique of project based activities working with ‘at risk’ groups in Finland, specifically in the preparation of immigrants and those with criminal backgrounds, for a life of precarity. The projects discussed refer to publicly funded, short-term educational programmes that operate outside or on the edge of the formal education system. The authors' argument is that while projects have become an ideological method of introducing a market orientation to welfare politics, this political ethos places people considered to be ‘at risk’ in positions where insecurity is inevitable, and flexibility may be either a help or a hindrance.

‘Learn Skills and Get Employed’: Constituting the Employable Refugee Subjectivity through Integration Policies and Training Practices

“…This is an obstacle towards their transition to work life, remaining in transit rather than reaching the final destination of integration, namely employment. Consequently, refugees seem to remain in integration limbo for several years (see Kurki & Brunila, 2014). According to Shan and Fejes (2015), and our analysis, the one who is skilled and/or competent enough largely depends on how society considers the matter.…”

Vulnerabilizing Young People

“…We have also shown how various types of support systems that are supposed to carry potential benefits for 'vulnerable young people' are shifting the aims and potential of education, training, and lifelong learning onto a different path (Kurki and Brunila 2014). This shift has contributed to building knowledge hierarchies rather than equal opportunities among young people.…”

Identity politics, the ethos of vulnerability, and education

“…Various cross-sectoral policies, initiatives and programs have become the primary means of preventing disaffection and alleviating the worst effects of the presumed deficiencies. Typical initiatives have included programs for individuallyoriented emotional education and emotional pedagogy, happiness and well-being, anger management and behavioral training, mindfulness lessons, as well as peer mentoring and life-coaching as part of the whole-institution support systems Dahlstedt, Fejes & Schonning, 2011;Irisdottir & Olsen, 2016;Kurki & Brunila, 2014). This type of orientation tends to turn out to be repressive when problems experienced by young people are considered as challenges for individuals instead of policies and practices producing gendered, racialized and classed subjectivities.…”

“…For Butler, interruptions or inadvertent convergences with other networks might produce subversive citations that disrupt the pre-ordained iterability of subjectivity (Butler, 1997, p. 135). This could be considered to be a way to resist, because in this poststructural discourse on precariousness, vulnerability and interdependency, these ideas are not meant to turn people inwards or to make them feel weak, unlike in the neoliberal discourse of the ethos of vulnerability (Kurki and Brunila, 2014). Quite the contrary, they can enable new forms of identity politics and new alliances.…”